Neighbor wont mow his field. Having problems with rats.

[Mgui35]

There is a field adjacent to my property. The owner lives in another state and will not mow the property. Lately I have been seeing rats eating on the slab outside the chicken house. I have already shot two of them and I put some poison on his side of the fence. They won't touch the poison but keep eating chicken feed. I don't know what to do at this point. I took it upon myself to mow back about 15 feet from the fence but there is a derelict building where I believe they are residing. Im up for suggestions at this point.

 

[Ema]

complain tot he city or your town council, they will get something done and he will likely be sent a bill. or a notice to comply.

Ema

 

[P-Funk]

Cats.

 

[Baymule]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183374

This is a good thread about rats. I haven't tried the peanut butter/plaster paris/ olive oil yet, I got rid of mine with poison. I will try this next time.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

It's your neighbor's field, why do you feel he should be required to cut it?

Anyways, besides mowing a border, d-con works pretty well. Can you take up the feed at night? If you remove the feed at night and mix a little feed with some d-con pellets they will definitely eat it.

 

[chickened]

You said he lives in another state? mow the thing end of problem. If you want code enforcement snooping around your place then call them. As Mac said put your feed up at night for a while and see if they leave, rats only live where there is food. I use the best poison I can afford and put it out on a schedule and before anyone says use cats I have the cat lady from hell about 4 blocks from me she has about 100 or so and I still have rodents.

 

[Mgui35]

I dont feed them there. It is just hen scratch that they are foraging for on the concrete slab. I hate getting Govt. authorities involved in anything. From where I stand they just screw things up. I will try the peanut butter/plaster of paris recipe and also the D-con. Maybe they will eat those over the poison that I put out. I agree about the cats. They end up breeding and become a big pest themselves usually. We had one and fed it but it ended up destroying the house and when we stuck him outside he jumped on the neighbors cars.

 

[chickened]

If you have the time for this, I go out with my boys with a light, 22cal rat shot at night and shoot rats. It is kinda fun.

 

[P-Funk]

I have one cat found in another barn when he was about the size of a golf ball. Now he is the chickens' guardian angel. God help any rodent that goes anywhere near the flock. He even cornered a fox once in the barn. He has food and water there so he comes and goes as he pleases. I am niether a lady, from hell, or a cat person for that matter, but Rambo still has some feral in him and is one bad mamma jamma.

 

[chickened]

My Jack Russells will tear rats from limb to limb.